Posted By Beth Carpenter On December 27, 2010 @ 10:58 am In Notebook | No Comments

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/bcvideo/1.0/iframe/embed.html?videoId=1248069482199&playerType=embed
(“Two New York City men feel a tremendous responsibility to respond properly when they mysteriously receive hundreds of letters addressed to Santa Claus at their Chelsea apartment.” Via the New York Times.)The sponsors of a Medicare fraud prevention bill hope to reintroduce it in 2011: “The bill would empower the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Inspector General to bar executives from federal health programs if a company they worked for is convicted of fraud after the executive has left the company. Under current law, executives can only be excluded from Medicare if they’re still with a company at the time of conviction, which can occur years after fraudulent activity begins.” This should help: “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid on Thursday unveiled a 73-page plan to modernize its computer and data systems, as required by the healthcare reform law.”Hmm: “Dr. Scott D. Augustine, the inventor of a widely used piece of surgical equipment, now has a better idea — he wants hospitals to stop using the device during certain operations, asserting that it poses a danger to patients.”“Mr. Gallagher, a carpenter who immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1970, died alone in his apartment in Sunnyside, Queens, two years ago this month, at age 72. A week passed before his body was discovered by firefighters summoned by the building’s superintendent. His lonely ending stunned and embarrassed many Irish New Yorkers, and spurred a collective reckoning: How could this have happened, particularly among a seasoned immigrant population known for its cohesiveness and organization?”